Gentle Readers!
Please be advised that we are making some site tweaks, so if things go wonky on you, rest assured, they will straighten out. I promise. Because the site may be erratic, I strongly recommend saving copies of your comments in case they accidentally get eaten, although we will do our best to prevent that from happening.
Incidentally, if you do experience problems (other than the bold font, we know about that (this should be gone now, so if the site is displaying in bold, let us know!)), this thread is a good place to leave them; please let us know which browser and operating system you are using (if you’re worried about privacy, you can also email admin @ disabledfeminists dot com to report those issues directly).
This notice will go away when we’re done, and thank you for your patience.
(Note 27 Nomber: Site tweaks are mostly finished, although we are still working on some things, but we’re leaving this post up so that people can continue to report problems, and so that we have a nicely organized list of the problems people have reported.)
Hey, tigtog here. Just to let you all know that the tweaks/hacks we are working on are to improve the way the site renders in sassafrassing#$&*^%$)@#( Internet Exploder. People using other browsers shouldn’t see too many differences.
The posts and comments are all a lot narrower – wider margins, are you trying to meet a minimum page requirement?
Firefox, latest version, Windows Vista, battered and barfed-upon 2007 sony vaio laptop.
Kaitlyn, sorry I missed this comment earlier.
We had to revert to the default stylesheet, and I’m now adding tweaks slowly and carefully. I hadn’t got around to setting margins yet. The problem is that a whole heap of things that look good in Firefox break the sidebar in IE, or make the text look wonky, or both.
If the whole planet used Firefox/Safari/Chrome, this wouldn’t be an issue. But lots of people are still tied into IE when accessing from work, libraries or internet cafes. The site needs to be browsable for non-standards-compliant POS browsers from Micr0$oft as well.
We’ll get there.
I’ve noticed a change this morning, and I don’t know if it’s a bug or a feature. It’s certainly livable (if not ideal) for me on Firefox (3.5.5) on Ubuntu… but the text of all the posts and comments is now apparently bolded? (but the text in the sidebars isn’t, for example)
The Bald Soprano, we are tweaking the text weighting; unfortunately, when we heavy it up a bit for Firefox so that visually impaired readers can read more comfortably, it becomes practically unreadable in Internet Explorer. (And of course for some folks the heavy text is hard to read; I for example also find it a little too heavy to read comfortably in Firefox right now.) Y’all should expect fonts to randomly change weights/stuff to move around on the screen for a while here while Viv works on a fix for IE, which is proving to be quite difficult (thanks, Microsoft!).
As someone who’s done a fair share of web design/development, I share your frustration with Internet Explorer.
Also, a suggestion– Verdana only comes in two weights, fairly light and ridiculously bold. Perhaps a different font would be better?
That makes sense; I was wondering if it might be on purpose.
We are also looking into font alternatives, rest assured.
Moving this here so we will be sure to see it, from Bene: “(OT: Mods–everything’s gone bold for me now, and I wasn’t one of the people having trouble before. OS X 10.5.8, Safari 4.0.3)”
(Folks, please try to put reports about visual weirdness in this thread so that we don’t have to chase them down all over the comments! Thanks!)
Everything has gone bold for me as well. I’m on Windows XP and and Firefox 3.5
Just so we’re all clear, the reason everything looks bold right now is because we had to revert to the original stylesheet for this theme, as Viv mentioned above (rather than the one which had been adapted); while we figure out how to get font weights to look right in both IE and FF (as well as Safari, Chrome, etc), everything is gonna look bold. Sorry about that!
Sorry about that, brain didn’t fully process this post as Place To Put Things. *sighs at self* Cheers.
It’s quite all right! My brain just likes to keep things organized and I have a fear of important information (like helpfully detailed descriptions of problem which *also* include OS/browser) getting lost!
I think the problem with the bold is that, well, it needs to be double-spaced. It makes it harder to read when my brain wants to flit off, as it often does. It looks like a big black wall of text.
Firefox, etc, etc.
thanks to everyone for feedback on the site tweaks – we should note that they are Still In Progress, and the way the site looks now is not our final goal! or, basically, we know it’s all bold and we don’t like the way it looks right now either and are continuing to work on it so everyone, regardless of browser, can have it look acceptable and not big bold wall o text-like.
Just another random idea: have you thought about cloning your WordPress installation and playing with the style sheet in the cloned version?
(I know it’s not permanent or anything, but the bold text is really screwing with my visual processing issues. Firefox 3.5 in OS X, btw.)
Yes, codeman, that is in fact exactly what we are doing.
People, I’m sorry that the text is annoying right now; it’s annoying for me too, and I promise that we really are doing everything possible to get it addressed, but keep in mind that the people working on it are in California and Australia, respectively, and working full time, which means that stuff can’t happen immediately.
Thank you for the way this site is set up. This website is one of the most relaxing sites to read because it is not full of flash, has good contrast, a nice bold font, and in general very very easy to navigate. I have 20/30 vision in one eye, and non in the other, so I see great, but sometimes by the end of a very long day my vision just can’t take anything but this site.
I must say, it’s nice to be able to view my entire comment before posting. Thank you!
K – where? I don’t see a preview button. That is cool!
Usually I get to see it before the other commenters do, but that’s while waiting for the mods to approve and fix it.
Ah, Kaitlyn, I assume that K is referring to the problem we were having with IE6 where the comment box was cut off, so people could only see part of their comments when they were inputting them.
I am experiencing a slowing-down/lagging of typing speed in this comment box. I am using Safari on an iPod Touch 2g, not sure what operating system. The lag is bad enough to affect even slow typing on the iPod’s onscreen keyboard.
I’m sorry to be so slow on responding to the critiques, everyone. I didn’t subscribe to this thread!
I’ve been in a headspace where I just couldn’t look at code for a few days. The break seems to have worked as intended, though, so I’m back looking for improvements.
I’ve shifted the font to Trebuchet MS to see whether that helps. I’m subscribed to comments now, so I’ll see them when they come in.
Speaking of which, do people want the option of subscribing via email?
Yes please re: subscribing to comments, with or without leaving a comment. If that’s not a drama. <3
OMG it’s not bold anymore WHEEEEEEE
I’m sooo sorry about leaving it bolded. I thought I’d set it back to lighter weight text before I took my break.
OK, email comment subscriptions are now enabled.
Thank you, tigtog! <3 <3 <3 <3